General Info

We are a family run lumber business with locations in southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee. We were built from the ground up, growing from one man cutting timber and pulling it with mules into a nationally known organization with a respected name and a solid reputation. With three generations of our family now working in the business, we are committed to its success. To us, that means running the business with hard work and integrity, values passed down from our founder and father, James Ritter. James established himself in the lumber business over 40 years ago. His life long passion for the industry started when he began logging with mules as a boy with his father. In 1965 he attended the National Hardwood Lumber school in Memphis, Tennessee and shortly afterwards he purchased his first sawmill in Brownsville, Kentucky. He went on to form James Ritter Lumber in 1975. Since then, he and his children and grand-children have grown the company into a solid lumber business with multiple locations. And today, JRL is home to nearly 100 hard working employees.